Trafficking is not at all new to the world. But the manner in which it has turned itself into a black-market business phenomenon, worth billions of dollars, is certainly of great concern. Socially and economically deprived women and girls, particularly from the continent of Africa, are the victims of this well-financed and highly organised evil global business.
One of the leading African countries where human trafficking is widespread is the oil-rich nation of Nigeria. Thousands of Nigerian girls and women are trafficked each year into various other west African nations and particularly into Europe. According to International Labour Organisation statistics, around 200,000 children are trafficked within west Africa annually to work as slaves, prostitutes, etc. Various news reports and documentaries have provided strong indications that over the last decade, Europe(particularly the UK, Holland, Belgium, Italy, France and Spain) has become a lucrative market for the trafficking industry.
According to UNESCO’s estimates, profits from the trafficking business range between US $7-10 billion annually, making it one of the most lucrative criminal activities along with drugs and firearms trafficking and political bribery and corruption. Lack of proper education and years of unstable social, political and economic environment have made Nigeria and many other African countries the breeding grounds of human trafficking. The justice systems in these poor and unstable countries are no match to the influential and financial reach of the corrupt, yet powerful, traffickers. Nigeria’s Benin city, in the eastern part of the country, is notorious for child smuggling.
Africa’s ancient black-magic ‘voodoo’ practice has certainly played a major part in increasing the plight of uneducated, poverty-ridden young women and girls. They are tricked into entering the murky world of trafficking by corrupt witch-doctors. Due to lack of education and belief in age-old irrelevant rituals, the victims have no other choice but to get smuggled abroad. Many young boys and girls, as young as five, are trafficked for ritual purposes and end up dead.
Although the UN, the African Union and the EU have taken stringent measures to curb the spread of this evil and encourage African girls out of sex slavery and prostitution, those programmes are yet to bear fruit due to various reasons. The victims are threatened by the exploiters and many young girls and boys believe that breaking out of voodoo-type rituals would put their lives at risk.
link: bbc
image link: bbc
